Despite the cold spell I was delighted to see that the snow was no longer forecast to come to our area this morning. That meant I could get out on my road bike with the club.

Time of depart for club ride? 8.30am

Time of snow starting? 8.29am

Ah well, if I hadn’t switched to my mountain bike for a couple of hours to potter about the tracks of Lasne I would have missed the contrast of snow against this beautiful avenue of beech trees and I wouldn’t have had time to stop and enjoy the icy grotto created around the spring in the valley below our house.

Not despairing.